Jie Yin and his colleagues at North Carolina State University modeled a small rectangle of rubber-like material infused with liquid crystals into a spiral-shaped soft robot. When the surface on which the robot is placed is heated to at least 55 ° C, the parts of the soft robot that touch it heat up and expand, while the others remain static.
Result? A twisting movement that makes the soft robot move at speeds of almost 4 millimeters per second.
The research was published in PNAS, and I put it here.
The shape of pasta that appeals to the future
I'll tell you right away that this soft robot has no computing capacity, but it can still do complicated things: for example, move inside labyrinths. How it does it When it reaches an obstacle, it has two options: either its orientation changes slightly and it can continue moving, or it pushes against the obstacle until its tension changes, changing its shape (and causing it to move).
This means that the soft robot will continue to turn to follow the new direction until it finds the way out.
In tests, the 12 centimeter long device shaped (an Italian can't help but notice) of a fusilli was able to roll on smooth surfaces, sand and pebbles. Plus: it can also move uphill on slopes of up to 15 degrees, and push a 'load' equal to its weight: 0,3 grams.
Soft robot of intelligent matter
What is the secret of this and other soft robots currently being studied around the planet? Yin says the capabilities of these devices are limited to material intelligence (their ability to react to stimuli such as heat or light) and structural intelligence, which exploits these materials to create complex behaviors.
“Without both things, it won't work,” says the researcher.
This contraption is technically not a robot: it is a special piece of rubber in the shape of a paste. However, his performances are like those of a robot. Designing them in an even more complex way will give them even more advanced capabilities.
The result will be very cheap soft robots, capable of exploring both external and internal environments of the human body. Stay tuned.
